Is that fact or your interpretation?
And Another One ...
- Thread starter VicBee
- Start date
Are AlQaeda decreased terrorist threats coming out of AFG cells a fact or an interpretation?
1. As a matter of fact, AlQaeda is a Sunni Arab organization that came from Saudi Arabia. They took refuge in Afghanistan.
2. The original objective in your mind ended when AlQaeda was sufficiently weakened and OBL killed. The fact that we stayed so much longer perhaps suggest the objective wasn't strictly surgical.
1. Does it matter? OBL was in AFG and AFG cell was responsible for 911. Them being international and Saudi backed doesn't change that fact.
2. I never said objectives did not change, only the purpose of the troops being there and when they were basically done. The conversation of whether attempts at reconstruction and setting up a system of government that would be rejected unless we stayed for 50 yrs is a separate one.
It matters when you muddle the facts, taking shortcuts to make your point. We went in not to take out AlQaeda but to take out the Taliban who were harboring an AlQaeda cell. Despite all our efforts (troops, funding, time) we couldn't eliminate the Taliban who had plenty of home grown and Pakistani support, so we left.
Now who's muddling the facts to make a point?
https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/09/20/ret.afghan.bush/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-22-mn-48537-story.html
That's right, we told the Taliban to hand us OBL, they told us to pound sand, we went after the Taliban. In the process, we killed OBL and got rid of AQ in Afghanistan but, despite our efforts, we never got rid of the Taliban.
Or, without revisionism, the Taliban chose a side and got in our way of getting OBL & AQ.
Except we stayed far longer after getting rid of OBL and Al Queda because we wanted to rid off the Taliban from Afghanistan. Not your story.